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Sunday, 4 May 2014

UKIP: The Rise of Xenophobia. A reprise to the infamous video.

Hello everybody, I return to you now, at the turn of the tide. After one month and one day of silence my dissertation is in and a third of my exams are done, so I can stop panicking and get back to writing. Thanks to Harvey and Butler (who definitely do not "blow" or "suck") for picking up the slack. Especially Butler who had the exact same workload as me and somehow managed to do that AND write AND play more games than I managed to. Truly he is a modern day Achilles.

So now that I'm back I spent some time thinking: "What should my first article be on?". I had had some requests in the comments and e-mails (chapkatsu@whataboutcynics.com) to do an article on my dissertation, and I think I might eventually, but right now I don't overly want to think about Schleswig-Holstein and Danish Nationalism ever again; so we will give it a week or two. I decided to cover the topic that got the second most extreme response during WaC, namely the half a dozen death threats that came with covering UKIP. And as there is an election in 19 days that they are scheduled to win, what a perfect time to reflect on how far our - soon to be - fascist overlords have come.

When we are living in the dictatorship of God-Emperor Farage, these photos will be banned.
It is proof he can bleed.

So depending on who you believe, UKIP is either going to carry the May 22nd European polls by either a lot (30%), a helluva lot (38%) or a paranoid nutter amount of a lot (52%), and while polls can change and undoubtedly the people who know they are going to vote in the EU elections are people who love or hate the EU, those figures are very scary.

The Poll seems to perfectly highlight how Britain is a country in two minds at the moment, quite deeply divided. The poll also found that 33% of people find UKIP a racist party, presumably, you hope, that this doesn't cross with the 38% that said they'd be voting for them. Equally, 33% said they believe UKIP to be honest (Despite the series of lies that have been revealed these past few weeks), and 38% said they believe them not to be. Labour's vote proportion (who I will be voting for) is 27% currently.

Now I was half torn about writing an audience UKIP disclaimer, given the number of people who come to this site, but I figured it was probably quite unlikely that anything would come of it. If you are voting for UKIP though, please write why in the comments, I'd be fascinated to know (or whatever party you plan to vote for/your view on the strange world of British politics.

If this is true it is fascinating (and might lead to a Labour victory in 2015).

So yeah, despite the decidedly anti-UKIP tone of this article, I don't really want to vote shame. I'm perfectly willing to believe that some of British society is on board with the policies of UKIP, I just really hope it isn't 4 out of every 10 of you guys.

Farage himself though seems as unpopular as ever, he has been egged, made a fool of, kicked out of pubs and had his posters vandalised. It seems there is little mild ground in British Society at the moment, either you hate UKIP or you are voting for them. Their advertising campaign has been met with ridicule, with posters showing actors posing as out of work builders, farmers etc. Despite the fact these jobs get massive grants from the EU, but whatever right? Europe bad...apparently.

Let us take a moment to appreciate that JCDeacaux are French.

The Cynic in me (and if there was ever a place for him it was here) says that this has to be some sort of conspiracy by the 'City', of whom Farage is a well known poster-boy for. The European Union, even as recently as yesterday has been trying to curb the rampant money-dealing that occurs, and what better way to remove it than a 'pseudo-racist, pseudo-working class' party. As our Butler has called them "Tories in cheaper suits".

Over the past two weeks, lots of UKIP-based news has come out, one candidate told Lenny Henry to go back to Africa, despite being from Dudley. Farage's aide was revealed to have been one of the "normal voters" in his leaflet. A wealthy UKIP patron doesn't think women should wear trousers. It is the sort of "rise of the Right" gaffs that was liquid gold to 'Spitting Image' back in the day. Oh damn, just as I was writing this Farage just had to fire a guy who called Islam "evil" and Homosexuality "an abomination". Yeah, that basically sums it up.

Yet despite that, their poll numbers keep on growing. Part of me thinks it is because the voter turnout is expected to be so low, which is really the main crux of this article. The European Union is as functional of a democracy as Parliament. As those UKIP posters say, it makes 75% of our laws. You should have your say in them, and stop the rise of bigotry. Speaking of which actually, currently it is the policy of EVERY UKIP MEP to not attend Brussels, so a vote for them isn't even getting anyone represented anywhere, and that is just sad.

So here is hoping they don't triumph on May 22nd, or I might be heading back to sunny, sunny Germany.

Next time will probably be something cheerier. I might have watched some decent films by then, I still need to do one on The Raid 2 (which might just be FOTY 2014). Either way, sorry for the dull political (and way too British for my liking) rant, but as that election looms closer, I'm gonna need something to angrily post at people. Glad to be back.